For a number of years attempts have been made to create artificial flowers, made of paper, fabrics or plastic, to satisfy the need for decoration, when conditions are such that it is not possible to satisfy this need with natural flowers, for climatic or economic reasons.
Artificial flowers are far from reproducing the vividness and the beauty of the fresh natural flower.
on the other hand, the natural flower, like any other plant organ, is subject to the decomposition of the tissues which have ceased metabolizing. Saprophytic organisms (bacteria, fungi, etc.) are responsible for the change in the floral qualities and for the final decomposition of the organic matter.
Until now, in order to obtain a prolongation of the floral qualities of natural flowers, attempts have been made to produce dried flowers or to preserve their appearance by immersion in a dye bath containing glycerine.
Thus, in a closely related but different field for preserving boughs or branches of ligneous plants, according to French Patent No. 1,354,279, the boughs are soaked in a bath of monoethylene glycol to prevent the plant from drying.
Furthermore, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,890 there is a description of a process for increasing the resistance to the phenomenon of "porelage" (or exudation) of plants which are treated with glycerine for their preservation. This concerns particularly exotic plants such as palms, by employing the perfusion method consisting of a uniform diffusion of a preservative liquid, i.e. one which replaces part of the water present in the cells. Solutions based on glycerine, polyethylene glycol or propylene glycol are employed as preservative liquids.
None of these methods is actually employed for preserving cut flowers.
In fact, the only possibility of preserving the matter constituting the plant tissues of the flowers consists in preventing the destructive action of the decomposition agents by placing them in an inhospitable or abiotic medium. This involves a virtually complete absence of water.